Ep. 24 Navigating Christmas Finances: A Stress-Free Preparation Guide

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Hi there foodie houses. Welcome to the Money Solve your Problem podcast where every week we talk about how you can become good with money in your pocket and in your mind by using practical life coaching tools and simple and efficient ways to do money math. Are you ready to invest in yourself? Let's dive into this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Money Saw youw Problem podcast where we help you become good with money in your pocket and in your mind. I'm your host Madeline, and today I'm going to start with a question for you. Have you tried to buy a jacket in January when it's really cold and found swimsuits for sale at the store? Or have you done the opposite, tried to find a swimsuit in the middle of August and found heavy winter jackets? Yes. It did not make any sense for me then. It took me a couple years after I moved from Brazil here to finally figured out that I had to purchase things ahead of the season. By the time my second daughter came around, I was part of a consignment sale that would happen every six months. It was called Savv Chic. In California, they had that sale twice a year, once in the spring and one in the fall. So what I started doing is preparing everything that my daughter had used. Any gear, any clothes, any toys that none of my girls wanted anymore. And I would prepare them for the sale. Then I would take my things there to be sold. And then after that, because I was selling there, they would give me a special time and a special day to go in and shop before it was open to the public. It was great. I would purchase all the things that I thought I would need for the next six months for my youngest daughter. And of course not all the sizes would be perfect, but most of the stuff that I bought was right on target. When the season came around. It was weird buying sweaters and winter jackets when it was 100 degrees outside, but I learned that buying for the upcoming season would be the best thing I would be doing at that point, especially while trying to stay within my budget for clothing. But why in the world I'm telling you this story as I'm sitting here recording this podcast. It is almost Halloween only, but Christmas is just around the corner and if you haven't prepared for Christmas yet, then you still have about a month and a half or so to be able to prepare for it and not stress like every other year. As you can imagine, I'm talking about preparing financially for Christmas and it seems that if you're not ready financially for Christmas then that's going to bring you stress and that's going to make the season miserable for you and for those that are around you. For the past two weeks, I have been doing a series on Instagram stories about tips of how to survive the season and how to be prepared for Christmas this time. And I know that stories only last 24 hours. So I decided to pick five of my favorite tips to share with you. Here on the podcast, we have to face all the different marketing strategies that big companies use to get our money and our attention. And of course, they reach our kids to make sure that they ask for all the things under the sun for us to buy. And if we don't buy, we're being bad parents. There's this huge weight that we carry on our shoulders, especially if finances are tight. Here's tip number one. Determine your budget for Christmas ahead of time. Right now you need to decide how much money you want to spend on Christmas in holiday decorations or gifts or parties that you're going to attend. And you want to take a hostess gift, you have to sit down and realistically look at your budget and see what you can allocate it for Christmas. It is best to do now when there is no pressure from anywhere and you can really decide what you want to spend. If you're married, make sure that you include your spouse in that decision because sometimes one might resent the other for deciding in a certain amount and the other one doesn't even agree with that. Trying to get a consensus it would be very helpful throughout the season. The worst thing that we could do is jump into the season without looking at our finances, without looking at how much money we can afford to spend, and plan to spend everything on credit cards that goes into our second tip. Our second tip is create a gift list and if money's short, reduce the size of it. We know we want to gift everybody. We want to go to all the parties and we want to go everywhere and there's always someone that you want to give a gift. And a lot of times we don't want to give a gift. We think that we have to give them a gift. We say, no, this person I have to give them a gift. I know it is difficult. We want to please everybody. We want everybody happy. And a lot of the times we buy things that other people don't even want or we re gift things because we think we have to give them something. Sure, if it fits into your budget, go ahead and buy a present for everybody. But the problem is usually we are Pretty tight at this time of the year. We end up buying things because we think that they would think bad about us. They would think that we're cheap if we don't give them anything. Most of the time, they're not even thinking about us. They're just thinking about the people that they think that they have to buy gifts to because they don't want to look cheap to the other people. So they're not even concerned if they're going to get a gift or not. And if they're really true friends and they know that you're struggling a little bit, or if you don't give them a gift, they're not going to get mad at you. That's the kind of friend that you want to have. So this thought that our brain offers us, that we're cheap if we don't give gifts to everybody, that's a thought that's not going to serve you. That's a thought that you have to challenge. Nobody's forcing you to buy anything. And when we tell ourselves that we have no choice, we feel horrible. And when we feel horrible, we don't do the best things. We end up going over our budget, our plan for the holidays, and we end up spending more and taking a credit card and financing things that we are not planning to finance. You have to prepare for those things because your brain is going to offer you those thoughts. You have to understand that your brain wants you to be part of the tribe. And if not, given a gift is going to make you to become an outsider. Your brain doesn't like that. So create a strategy so when those thoughts come up, you can process them and talk back to your brain and don't accept just because it was presented to you. So maybe you don't have to cut people out of your list. Maybe your list is already a small list. But then you have your kids, and then kids see everything on TV, on TikTok, on social media, and they want everything. They will ask you for the things that come in a catalog. I remember that Target and Toys R Us back in the day would send us catalog and it would arrive right before Thanksgiving. And my girls would look through the entire catalog, circle everything that they thought it was, cute, fun, exciting things that they did not even like, but they circle anyway. And the expectations are that they're going to get everything. And that is not helpful for them or for us. But there's no way to escape the propaganda and marketing that's everywhere around us. You have to be firm and you have to be A parent. And when the thought comes up that you cannot buy things for your kids everything that they want because you are a bad parent if you don't buy, that's another thought that you have to challenge. Especially if you start comparing yourself with other families. Remember, comparison steals your joy. Don't go into debt thinking that your kid is never going to get over that he didn't get 5, 7, 10 presents at Christmas time. And that's your fault. I remember when I had had my second child. My first one was seven years old and she was not very happy that I was having a little sister for her it was not for her. She was very mad that we were having a second child. And me being a mom wanted to make sure that she felt special and she had her special place still that she was not being trained and there was no difference between them. I just had that baby right ten days before Christmas. And so we decided to buy. I decided to buy a bunch of toys, a bunch of things and put under the tree. It was Christmas palooza for her, only for her. Cuz the baby wasn't getting anything. It was the gear and the stuff and the clothes I already had for the baby. And I can tell you right now it made no difference. She still resented the little child and still resented me for having another child. So it made no difference at all. And I don't even think she remembers that Christmas for the toys and for all the things that were under that tree. The only reason she might still remember that Christmas is only because she lost her first place as being the only child. That's all. And if she has to go to therapy and talk about that, that's part of her journey and there's nothing I can do to control it. And I can tell you right now, at that point in my life I had no margin, there was no extra money. We did put everything on the credit card and it was just stressful. I felt so stressed and it was difficult. That was just one more thing to add to our debt list. So here's a tip. Make sure that if your budget doesn't allow cut people from your list and don't go shopping out of guilt. You know, here's another problem. When people borrow money from parents and from in laws, this is what happens, right? Person borrow money and then. Or you let them borrow money from you and you see them doing a lot of Christmas giving and going all out during the holidays and if you let them borrow money then you're wondering why are they not paying me? But they're buying all this bunch of gifts. And if you do the other way around, if you borrow money from someone in your family and you go buy a bunch of expensive gifts and go on vacation, go to another families to celebrate the holidays, well, someone's going to be watching you and seeing that you're not paying your debt to that person, but you're spending in other things, it is never a good idea. Something that's really helpful when you create your gift list the people they have to buy, start making a list of the things that you're going to purchase for them and set your budget. Now that you have your number for the entire holiday, then you're going to put what you're going to spend with each person. That way you can see the math right there. And whatever the money that you had available, that's what you're going to use. One thing that I was reading about is the amount of money that people spend with holiday decorations. If you don't have extra money, consider using the ornaments and the decorations that you already have. You don't need to buy new things. And from all of this, the best thing for you to do is to decide why, why you're doing what you're doing. When you decide why you're doing what you're doing, when your why is compelling enough, then you can stand behind it and you can just let other people comment, made little remarks, or criticize you because you're happy with your decision why you're doing what you're doing. So if you decide that you're going to cut people from your list and someone makes a comment and you say, yep, we are a little tight on our budget this year, so we're not buying gifts for everybody. Or if you're happy with the choice about buying certain things for your kids. When your kids complain, they might not understand. Of course, their brain is not developed. They might be a little upset. But then you talk to them and explain that you were watching the finances. And if you've been talking about money with your kids for a while, then this is going to be much helpful. But if you never talked about money with your kids, well, that's the hint that you have to start teaching them because they will understand if you explain them why. Of course you have to have conversations that are age appropriate, but everybody can understand. And sometimes a lot of little kids just love the box of where what the present came in, the wrapping paper and the bows. And most of all, they want your time. They want you to spend time with them, playing with them. So make sure if you're going to buy a present, don't buy a toy that makes lots of noise if you don't like the noise or is not willing to listen to the toy as the kid plays with it. But of course you can just tell me. Okay, Madeline, I listen to you. I understand. But I still have to buy all these gifts. I think I have to. It's important these people help me out and I want to show gratitude. Well, so then we'll go into our third tip. Our third tip is save up and pay cash for the holiday bills this year. Okay? You might just be funny and say, no, we don't use cash anymore. It's all cashless. You know what I meant? You save for it and then you pay, right? Then you don't divide it up. Finance, put it on a credit card. Those things are just gonna catch up to you. Did you know that 40% of Americans were still paying for their holiday bills into February this year? Not only you feel bad that you're spending money that you don't have, but you keep being reminded every month when you open your credit card bill that you cannot pay the full amount, that you can only pay the minimum balance. So this is what you can do instead. You can go find ways to make more money. There are ways for you to make some money and be able to pay for the holidays. You can look through your subscriptions and decide if you don't use them anymore. Or you can go for a few months without it. Then you can cancel your membership. Those membership for subscriptions end up coming in the form of you not having to pay a bill in November or December. Also, you can have a garage sale to sell a bunch of stuff, go through the house and make a big cleaning and sell and do it before it starts getting really cold and people don't go out to buy stuff. A lot of times you can find lots of good stuff from other people in garage sales. So I would recommend you do your own. Also, you can go find another job, a part time job. You can go drive for Uber or go work at a restaurant. The best way possible is for you to get a seasonal job in a place that you shop already. So if you shop at Walmart, well, go work at Walmart. They are always hiring at this time of the year and in many places you can get a discount for whatever you already gonna buy anyway. I remember being a broke graduate student and I was working at two restaurants. So I had discount for food. So I had discount in the morning for my Lunch and then I had discount in the evening for my dinner. And also there's another way for you to find money is adjusting your budget. If you already have a budget, a written plan every month, you can cut some of the things they won't have to spend this time or you can reduce your budget for certain categories. Now if you never made a budget before, if you sit down and you create a budget, you're going to see they almost look like you got a raise. I do that. I remember it was a Christmas time, a long time ago and I sat down and decided to do my budget and created that budget. I look at the percentages, how much it should be, how much we were spending, and I was able to add all the things that I wanted to put aside to pay annual bills and still had the money to do the other things. And we were able to find some money to put towards our debt. It was a great tool for us. I highly recommend you to do your written budget. This takes to our tip number four, be smart about how you shop. If you already set your budget for the holidays, you created your list, you removed some names that you don't have to purchase anything or that you're going to skip this year and then you decided that you're going to pay cash for it, well, now it's time for you to be smart about how you shop. And there are many ways that you can save while you shop. One of the things that we do is research the toys, the gifts that we're going to give to people. There are certain things that we know exactly what we want to buy. So if you want to do that, you're going to have to do some research. If your problem is time, then you should look some of those websites, they already do the research for you. I love Hip2Save. I started following them back in 2000, I don't know 2007. And since then I've been saving a lot of money following their deals. They do the work for you. You just go on their site and they're gonna tell you this toy is cheaper in this place. You can do it this way. They also gonna find the coupons and the deals that go with that sale. So then you can double save. For example, they will go to Amazon and tell you that the best price for this one toy is at Amazon and, and Amazon is offering a flash deal and it has to be purchased by the next 24 hours. And if you follow them, you'll be able to get the best price for the items that you're looking for. These sites also offer the deals for in store sales, so that's always helpful. And they usually link where the coupon is. If you have to take a specific coupon to the store or add it to your account. When you shop online you can also use cashback apps or other types of extensions that you put on your Google Chrome that will save you money. I know that Capital One is always telling me to add their extension on my browser so they can offer coupons. And as I'm going through a purchase, another one that does that is honey. They will try different coupons and apply the best one to your purchase. If you're trying to save with Christmas cards, well, you can always look at Walgreens or cvs. They always have a coupon for their cards. For the past few years I've had used them and it's always about 50% off on my purchase. And if I run out they're right next door to me so I can just put another order and then go pick it up. Very easy and convenient. Now in the all truth, there are very few items, especially if you're being budget conscious that you need to pay full price for. Now if you're looking for something that's iPad or Bose, sometimes you cannot find those on sale. Usually you can. So you just have to keep your eyes peeled if you're looking for something like this. And remember, always shop sales deals and use coupons. That's gonna help you stretch your dollars to buy the gifts that you want. Also a lot of times I had the money separated to buy the gifts, but I did not take in consideration the wrapping paper and all those things. So I end up trying to find wrapping items right before Christmas at the last minute and not finding a whole lot available out there and then paying whatever price it was asking me at the grocery store because that was the only place that was too available. So one thing that you could do is always go to the dollar store. Dollar store. Now it's a dollar ninety but you can always find good prices and good deals on those bags, gift bags or boxes or wrapping paper really or tissue paper. Now I don't recommend you to go buy tape and those places because the roll of tape that they sell is very short. So then you're going to have to end up buying several rolls of tape. Good places for you to buy rolls of tape, usually places that sell office supplies. And now our last tip, the hardest tip of all. Number five, stick to your plan. I know you made your plan, you set your budget, you made your list. You start looking for things to buy and you end up seeing more things that you think that would be great or you feel that you have to buy more. You look at your presence and you think this is not enough. Well, when you act from scarcity or that mentality that you don't have enough or that you want more, be content where you are. But if you're not, you're going to end up spending more. So having a plan and being happy with the choice that you made, why you made that plan, that's going to help you navigate the season with more confidence. I know. And if you feel that you want to buy things, it's normal. Don't beat yourself up. It is normal for us to want more things. Remember, you created that plan. You put those things in place and you did that when you had no pressure so your past self was really looking out for you. Trust that you did the best choice. Staying committed to your plan is going to help you avoid the impulsivity and buying things just because you're excited at the moment. Remember, you save 100% of the money when you don't buy things that you don't need just because they're on sale. So be kind to your future self. Stick to your plan. That way you're going to start the next year free from any holiday bill. But the best advice that I can give it to you is to start preparing for next Christmas already in December. Yes, that's right. This December. As soon as the holiday does settle down, start a sinking fund and next year you'll be able to take advantage of Black Friday Cyber Monday deals. You won't be stressing if you can't put enough money together at the last minute. It won't be a big burden every month if you set aside 20 to $30 a month, you will learn the skill of discipline and follow through which will increase your confidence level, which in turn increase the chances of you believing and seeing other possibilities in your life. If I was able to do this, save money for Christmas and save every month, imagine what I can do now. But don't beat yourself up because you are not prepared this year. Let's recap the five tips I gave you. 1. Determine your budget for Christmas Christmas. 2. Create a gift list now. Reduce names if necessary. 3. Save up and pay cash for it. Number four, be smart how you shop and number five, stick to your plan. I hope this was helpful. I hope you follow these tips and be able to start the new year without any holiday bills. Just the joy of the season. I'll see you guys next time at the Abrefio Brigado. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. Remember to, like, subscribe and share. And if you want to learn more about the attributes that make you good with money, go to my website right now, Strasbourgcoaching.com and sign up for the free 9 video series. I'll be back next week at the Brevio Brigada.